The Mountain Goats came through the Bluebird in Denver on Friday and it was another sold out show. It was a great performance filled mostly with songs from their latest release Heretic Pride and a few old favorites. I hadn't heard their last release yet but after the show I picked it up the next day. The Mountain Goats have really been one of my favorites for the last couple of years and Heretic Pride definitely maintains my interest. John Darnielle's verbose lyrical style combined with his driving rhythm guitars keeps attracting more and more fans and it seems they have finally picked up a permanent drummer who is a great addition to the band. The opening act for the tour is Kaki King fronted by an extremely talented young woman of the same name (or Katherine King if you wanna get technical). She is an acoustic guitar player of immense ability with a sweet voice to match. Kaki King and John Darnielle have joined up on an upcoming release Black Pear Tree which they previewed at the show and the songs sound great. You must catch this show if you have the chance and if you haven't listened to either of these bands before pick up an album immediately.

I randomly found myself at two shows this week which turned out to great. The first was on Wednesday, A place to bury strangers at the Larimer Lounge. They are a noise rock trio out of Brooklyn very reminiscent of Psychocandy era Jesus and Marychain. It was a solid sonic assault with masterfully used feedback and drummer so quick and crisp he sounded like a drum machine. I actually wasn't all that impressed by them until the end when they launched into an amazing jam which made it all come together. Their opening act got me far more excited. It was a space rock band out of the UK called Sian alice group. They were fronted by two beautiful girls and had a guitar wizard sitting down with a pile of pedals in the back making amazing sounds. The songs were long and spacious building to beautiful crescendos with the lead singers sweet voice wordlessly crooning through. They switched up instruments often, sometimes mid song and left me thoroughly impressed. If this lineup is coming through your town I highly recommend checking it out. The other show was Ben Kweller at the Bluebird on Friday. He is another of the these alt-country/indy-folk musicians that seem to be getting some good play these days. He put on a great performance with amazing crowd interaction, talking with the audience between songs and encouraging sing-a-longs during them. His newer songs sounded almost trucker-country while the older ones were more poppy and punk-folky. It was a good week for live music for me and I will definitely be picking up some new albums. There are plenty more great shows this month I just wish I could catch them all.

I've been away from this blog for too long so let me review what I've been listening to over the summer months. Dead Oceans releases have been really good this year and I have had The Explorers Club and The Donkeys in regular rotation as well as The Evangelicals, this months featured band. The Explorers Club's Freedom Wind came out on 5-20 and The Donkey's Living on the Other Side was released on 9-9. Spiritualized latest, Songs in A & E was released on 5-26 through Spaceman Records and is everything we have come to expect from Jason Pierce, in short, another fantastic record. The Old 97's Blame it on Gravity came out on 5-13 and is another great release in their lengthy portfolio. Not released anytime recently but something I've been listening too alot (thanks to NPR) is Karen Dalton's In My Own Time. A 60's era lost gem which is absolutely worth revisiting now. Another band that I came across this summer which is great (and I owe them an album review) is The Sumner Brothers. Their album now self-titled has been released online on 9-19 and is absolutely worth picking up. Its sort-of a dirty country blues sound from Canada that sounds like it should be outta the back woods of Kentucky. That's it for now I suppose, I'm looking forward to catching the Mountain Goats again at the Bluebird on 10-17 and the Evangelicals will be coming through the Hi-Dive that same week on the 14th.

I saw The Explorers Club play at the Lions Lair last Tuesday the 24th. It was great to hear there less polished, live sound. Its not quite so straight up Beach Boys live again but more 60's rock. It took them a few songs to warm up but when they were warm they were hot. Unfortunately they only played a very short set. They did get in my favorite song, Honey I don't know why, and it was rockin. They finished off with a sweet version of Johnny be good. All in all it was a great show and I'm sure they will be back in the future, playing much longer sets to much larger crowds.